Deleted Scenes: The Knife and the Turncoat
by Mr.Vaz
Summary: Why doesn't Kasumi know the full tale of Tas'Nerah yet? What really happened the night Miranda escaped from her father? And just what is the big deal with Nerve Stim Pro's newest feature? All this and more in these deleted scenes from the author who brought you The Knife and the Turncoat.
1. Goodnight Tali Pt 1

**Nope, I'm not dead. Life's just kept me otherwise indisposed.**

**Next ****_K&T_**** isn't ready yet, but I'll let you indulge in this little deleted scene. It would have happened a bit later than where the story is right now, but I've managed to get rid of any major spoilers. Timewise, it's in the middle of LOTSB.**

* * *

18.5: Goodnight, Tali  
Part 1

Tali was perplexed.

_Very_ perplexed.

Of course, it wasn't for lack of a reason. Quite the contrary; for starters, they were actually on their way to the secret base of the most enigmatic person in the galaxy. Someone who'd been harassing them for weeks (or years, if Sidonis was to be believed) and had generally contributed to the misery of Shepard's old squad during the commander's two-year absence. It was one thing to _say_ it (and not be struck down by an assassin to boot), but to actually _believe_ it was actually happening...

That they were going to take town the Shadow Broker...

The quarian frowned at the thought. No-one had asked her about what she thought about a particular smudge in fine print. Liara T'Soni had rejoined the Normandy crew. The knowledge that the woman had the gall to come aboard, let alone ask _him_ for help with her own despicable "_work_", had left her more tense than a vorcha from a high-grav world dumped on the Presidium. Still, the jealous quarian knew that it wasn't solely because of what Liara had almost had him doing the last time they had visited Illium. Even aboard the same ship, she was wary of John's old flame trying to steal him away.

Especially after her little talk with Mordin.

But that particular item had been more a cause for celebration than confusion.

Tali's particular brand of "celebration", on the other hand...

She took a look around the room -_his_ room- and shivered. The quarian had stolen her way inside, intent on surprising her human with the news once he finished his rounds. Of course, that was before she'd realized that she had sat on his bed. _His wonderfully soft, but much too large bed..._ She gulped, quivering once more. That she had actually broken into her captain's quarters was one thing, that she truly knew he wouldn't be angered by her actions another, but that she'd actually left her post almost a full six minutes early...

_Keelah..._

She was nervous.

And he was taking too long to arrive.

_Much_ too long.

Trying to fill the time, she had looked through her _second_-latest download. But that hadn't helped, leaving her (if possible) even _more_ curious about what could happen if -_no, when_- things were... _less busy. And when there's one less asari onboard._

She shivered.

Her thoughts had drifted, the curiosity a toxic catalyst that led her down a path she had tried to avoid more than once before. Many times like this, she had steered herself clear before her imagination could fully distract her from reality. It wasn't like there wasn't an alternative back on the Fleet; she could go back to her station, or talk to a crewmate, or practice her shooting, or quadruple-check the core readouts. Being on a Cerberus ship, however, was different. After much arguing -both internal and external- she knew EDI would alert her if anything fluctuated in the core by more than a hundredth of a percent. Target practice was out as an option as well; as large as the SR-2 was compared to her namesake, there just wasn't enough room for a shooting range aboard (a situation that amused Garrus to no end). She had grown used to some of the crew, but she still didn't trust some of those outside the squad... and she knew all too well where Kasumi would be during Jacob's six-o'clock workout. And being in the same room as Ken again before the next shift just wasn't an option. Gabby had long-since adapted to the man's boorish behavior, but the quarian saw little of the charm that she apparently did in the Irishman.

And so, she wasn't able to keep her mind from running wild. And in doing so, she had downloaded _it_ again. But apparently, the program had experienced a series of fundamental changes. For starters, Elkoss Combine, a volus-run company long-since trusted for developing such software, had sold its developer's license. Instead of the expected trio of rounded bars over a circle that precluded the program's startup sequence every time she had used it before, she had seen the oddly shirt-like logo of Devlon Industries. Of course, a logo and minor name change weren't going to bother her. So long as it did its purpose, she didn't care whether it was a salarian or a volus who had programmed it.

But there was another change. A single new setting whose very presence caused reality to screech to a grinding halt as she tried -and failed- to imagine the terrible implications behind it. Her mouth hung half-open, mind blank as she stared with widening eyes at the interface hovering over her wrist. Slowly, she shook her head, her brow furrowing in horror as her thoughts drifted to what sort of person would actually _want_ to include such a feature. Her lips moved, giving voice to the first fully coherent thought she had managed to form since seeing something so inherently weird.

"Why the hell did they add a setting for **_ears_**?"


	2. Goodnight Tali Pt 2

18.5: Goodnight, Tali  
Part 2

_Man, am I glad that's over._

John Shepard breathed a sigh of relief as he stepped out of the elevator. The human hadn't expected it, but finding adequate quarters for Liara had been difficult, to say the least. Even with the rotating schedule of hot-bunking and the plentiful supply of sleep capsules and beds that the Normandy had, there just wasn't room to squeeze her into the schedule. But he wasn't about to give up on finding a former crew member a spot to rest, if only for a little while. So he tried to find someone to share a room with her.

That had been a major mistake.

Despite Miranda's recent warming up to him, the officer was icily cool to the information broker. Possibly even more so than she had been toward Tali, at first. It wasn't that they were openly hostile, but there was a mutual... _Distrust? Respect? Wariness?_ Whatever it was, it was there. And despite the women's relatively cordial words to each other, he knew that neither would have agreed to such an arrangement. Not even for his sake.

Samara also was a no-go. Putting an information broker who had threatened to flay someone with her mind and sold a man's corpse to a paramilitary organization for unknown experimentation in the same room as a wanderer who adhered to a strict code of justice was just a bad idea from the start. And that's to say nothing of what John _didn't_ know about Liara's activities over the past two years.

Jack, Zaeed, Grunt... None of the rooms on the engineering deck were good options. They had chosen to stay in their rooms because they _liked_ the isolation. Robbing them of it would not end well for anyone involved.

He had hoped that Garrus would be alright with allowing his former squadmate to have a shift on his bunk. The turian, however, simply didn't have room for her. The cot, tucked directly under a console off to one side, was inaccessible while he ran a myriad of simulated trials on the newer thanix cannon and the standard magnetic accelerators. Evidently, his calibrations had literally taken over the room; every surface was covered with holographic interfaces as he simulated combat conditions while talking to the AI. Liara wouldn't have found any relaxation there.

Thane had been open to the prospect, and Liara had initially accepted, despite the lack of a "proper" bed in the life support area. However, all that had changed at one point, after the drell slipped into a bout of sollipsism. While Liara was taken by his tale of how he'd met his wife, she had been curious enough to ask who had hired him for that particular hit. The answer had come without hesitation: The Shadow Broker. To say she made a rapid about-face would be an understatement comparable to calling _Fleet and Flotilla_ "somewhat popular".

Kasumi's room, however, was locked. For some reason, not even his or Miranda's overrides could get the door open, and the woman wasn't answering her omni-tool. The thief, apparently, knew how to build a nigh-unbreakable security system. An unshackled EDI might have helped, but the commander wasn't _that_ desperate to open her door.

Eventually, he had gotten Doctor Chakwas to cave, allowing the former crewmate to sleep on a cot in the AI core "for old time's sake". The elderly woman still managed to give Shepard a burning glare before he left, warning him that Liara would need to leave if Tali became ill for any reason. As he hit the interface on his cabin door, his thoughts drifted back to that particular moment.

_That was cryptic of her... I mean it's not like I whisked Tali over to my bed to-_

The door to his cabin opened.

"-a setting for _**ears**_?"

He blinked. "Tali?"

During their time fighting together, John had heard Tali yelp before. Surprise and pain had been part of the job, after all, though she had adapted to it well. Even though the quarian had managed to rein it in after their first time fighting rachni on Noveria, there were still times where she could be caught off-guard. Kasumi had proven as much during the quarian's first few days aboard.

That was nothing compared to the shriek that came from the quarian's helmet.

She leaped in shock, her powerful legs nearly propelling her halfway to Shepard's "skylight" in the ship's reduced gravity before she landed on the bed again. John clamped his hands over his ears reflexively, barely noticing her fingers dancing chaotically across her lit omni-tool as she practically slapped at it without looking. It shut down as the quarian began to stammer, still barely audible over the ringing in the human's ears.

"John! I- I was- I mean... It isn't- But you- I just-"

"Tali..." He shook his head, and some of the background buzzing faded. "What are you doing here?"

"I swear, it isn't what it looks like... I mean, except... But I wasn't- I mean didn't get t- I mean just didn't... Not that I-"

_She's cute when she's guilty. Must have wanted to surprise me after her shift. _John grinned as he stepped into the room, closing the distance to the bed. "Tali..."

"Oh, Keelah, Quala told me this would happen. I told her I wouldn't but I can't believe I was- I mean thought- I mean..." She continued to ramble, her fingers twitching as she visibly resisted the urge to fiddle with them.

"Tali," John repeated, grabbing hold of her arm. She froze as he touched her, her glowing eyes widening as she squeaked once more.

"You... You _touched_ me," she murmured airily.

He raised an eyebrow. "You know I'm not going to hit you, right?" John grasped her hand, and he could have sworn the quarian had shivered in his grip. He heard her take a shuddering breath, but continued talking. "Look, there's no need to be so guilty. I'm just... surprised is all. I'm okay with you coming in to talk to me." He began to stroke the back of her glove absentmindedly, and she gave a slight whimper. "I'm not mad. I mean, it's not like I'll kick you out or anything..."

"Mm-hmm," she hummed, her eyes half-closing. "I- I need to... I need- N-need to..."

"You need to relax," John interrupted with a grin, placing a hand on her back.

"Khhhlahchonn," she mumbled, her eyes sliding shut as she leaned against him.

"I mean just look at you, you're practically falling asleep on me here."

"Na-nahtirrrd."

He grinned and shook his head, rising from her side. "I don't believe that, not after what happened at Azure. You can stay here if you like." _No point making her even more worried now either._ "I'll just take a quick shower and set up on the couch, okay?" He gave her leg a soft pat. The quarian gave an odd sound after he did, somewhere between a huff, a whimper, and a moan. He paused, looking at her in surprise. _I guess she might be worried about that dream she had the other night. Or maybe it's just Liara. Jealousy, maybe?_ The human shrugged, moving back to the bed. _Eh, so she has a clingy side. She's still Tali._ "But if you want, I could put that off til the morning." He put a hand on her shoulder, pulling her into a loose hug.

"Uuuuuhchonn..." She pulled him even closer, pressing her torso against his. "N-neeed you here, r-rightherenow."


	3. Goodnight Tali Pt 3

Goodnight, Tali  
Part 3

Tali's mind was a mess.

She knew she still hadn't mentioned her true reason for intruding on him yet. She knew John wasn't angry at her. She knew that she'd hit the wrong buttons when he'd walked in on her, that _it_ had been turned on by accident. She knew that the same could be said of her, if her growing knowledge of human idioms wasn't failing. She even knew that John had somehow managed to _not_ notice the true reason behind her clipped and barely-coherent answers.

If she was thinking straight, she'd have been relieved that he hadn't suspected her of using _it_. _It_, however, had kept any of those discrete bits of knowledge from developing into anything beyond a meager proto-thought.

As he embraced her, a thousand simulated sensations raced across her shoulder, the mere suit pressure from his hand amplified a hundredfold into an uncountable amount of loving caresses. Despite having her teeth sunk deep into her bottom lip, she was unable to stop herself from moaning.

"Uuuuuhchonn..."

The rational part of her wanted to be embarrassed, to push away and quietly excuse herself so she could turn _it _off. Or failing that, at least reach a more private part of his room for a few minutes.

_Keelah!_

If not longer.

She drew him closer, and the sensations spread over her like a blazing fire. Her neck, her side, her hips, her breasts... It was intoxicating, her mind diving ever deeper into a haze.

"N-neeed you here, r-rightherenow."

The word "rational" wasn't part of her vocabulary at the moment.

Something cut through the fog for a brief moment, slashing a portion of it away like a dagger through a shower curtain. She knew she should have been worried by his chuckles, but that line of thought stalled almost before it even started.

"It's alright, Tali. I'll keep the nightmares away."

She had no clue what a nightmare was. It was an abstract concept, something that may or may not have truly existed. Bad dreams were unfathomable, incomprehensible. Wet dreams, on the other hand...

_Dream...? This isn't a dream..._

Tali fought her way through the fog, pushing him back to arm's length. _Should... turn it off... before I..._ _Need... excuse... Kasumi!_

"H-Havt'call Kasumi," she breathed, her tongue tripping over the words between breaths. "Had... plans. Cancel." She reached for her omni-tool, but John pulled her hand away before she could turn _it_ off.

_Damn it._

"I'm sure she'll understand," he said softly, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. He gently dragged her down to the bed, torturing her with his numerous fingers as he tucked her in. She twitched as the program amplified his simple touches into a maelstrom of ecstasy.

_Daaaaaammmmmmmmit..._

"For now, let's get some shut-eye. I know you're exhausted."

If by that, he meant "drift off into a blissful state where she was completely unconscious of the world around her as her brain supplanted reality with fantastic images and sensations", then that's exactly what she did.

* * *

Getting to sleep had been easy enough. Almost too easy with the quarian clinging to his side. Even so, he found himself being dragged back into consciousness in the middle of the night. Were it any other, he would have considered grabbing the sleeping pills in a drawer off to his left, or maybe a bottle from his shelf.

Then he heard her hum softly, the feel of her suit against his body as she steadily breathed in and out. All thoughts of rising vanished, and he grinned as he noticed the arm draped across his torso, his own eyes still closed.

John couldn't believe his luck. _A month ago, she was afraid of being in the same room. But now... She's actually __**here**__. With_ **_me_**.

She hummed again, the sound ending with a soft purr as the quarian clenched tighter around him for a moment. He lifted an eyelid, just enough to see that her visor was completely dark.

_She's adorable when she sleeps. I wonder what she's dreaming about._

Tali hummed once more, her grip on the human constricting for a fraction of a second between her breaths. He placed his right arm over her left, the one that had encircled his torso. He absently began to stroke the limb, near her elbow.

_I don't have the heart to tell her about the humming. It sure beats snoring though, that's for sure. Angels don't snore._

"Mm-Kh...lah..." she murmured. He snuggled closer to her as she nudged him once more, tilting his head toward the helmet on his left shoulder as he wrapped the other arm around her back.

_She looks so gentle._

"Mmm..." She bumped her helmet against him as she pulled herself closer.

_So serene..._

"Ohh..."

_So carefree..._

"More..."

_So innocent..._

"Harder..."

_So- Wait, what?_


End file.
